Michel Bras

Laguiole is a pristine town nestled in the Aveyron region of southern France. Gently swooped tile roofs perch atop light stone buildings and flower boxes are brimming with crimson and yellow. The silhouettes of these pastoral buildings unfold into the rolling green hills of the Midi-Pyrenees where wildflowers speckle everything in sight. In this storybook town of just over 1,200 inhabitants, an unexpected specialty lurks behind the polished storefronts. Laguiole is quite possibly the cutlery capital of Western Europe with a whopping 24 coutelleries (knife shops) crammed into the city. Artisans proudly display their knives underneath glass top display cases, likening the product more to jewelry than something fit for cutting a hunk of meat. But functionality is certainly not lost to aesthetics. These knives can slice and dice, making even a sinewy piece of venison turn into a submissive piece of melted butter. After an afternoon of trying to devise a plan for how our precious knife would not be confiscated from our carry-on bags upon reentry to the States, we finally decided that our bank accounts would thank us for these national security measures. These knives can range above one thousand Euros each (for the mesmerizingly swirly slabs of Damascus steel). So, we rummaged through the basket of seconds, debated buying a fork just for the sake of it, and left empty handed to prepare for that evening’s meal.

Just outside the town, Michel Bras juts its architecturally anachronistic head above the paint palate assortment of green hues and makes a stunning appearance in all its modern-art-museum-ish glory. Currently ranked the best restaurant in France, Michel Bras had a big reputation to live up to. First we were lead into the glass-walled lounge area where a few other couples sipped cocktails and tried to fathom the almost 360-degree view of absolute beauty. From my smooth, beige leather chair I felt like I was at the helm of a massive space ship. My gourmand crew members had chosen this quaint spot to rest for the night, we abducted a few unsuspecting dairy cows and some local herbs and flowers and now it was time to eat. I’ll admit it is quite lucky my gastronomic fantasy planet is home to the best chefs and sommeliers in France.

Back to the real world, the menus were brought over and it was an easy choice for the longest “menu découverte et nature.” We made our way down a black tiled hallway, across a marble footbridge that spanned a small moat and into a long vaulted dining room. Once again we were faced with a stunning panoramic view of the countryside (which would only get better as the clouds settled and the sun set). The soft gray table clothes were expertly elastic at the bottom which made for ample leg room. In front of me gleamed a special Michel Bras edition Laguiole cutlery set with a holder that had little notches carved out for each tine of the fork and the curve of the spoon to rest in.

First, a series of  short handled spoonfuls: zucchini, fish & peas, cauliflower & ham & mustard. These little shovels were perfect for a single bite and looked beautiful alternated on the plate. Each bite was distinct and incredibly flavorful – a good sign of things to come.

I would guess this plate had at least 50 ingredients – but here is what I recognized: asparagus, carrots, peas, lentils, white beans, cabbage, scallion (bulb & green), 10 (+?) herbs, flowers, green beans, zucchini, sorrel, arugula + other greens and an assortment of spices adorning the edges of the plate. They called the dish “warm young vegetables,” which it was, but that conjures up images of steamed broccoli at preschool, so I think something like “magnificent array of the fresh and colorful bounty of nature” might be more appropriate. It was impossible to construct the same bite twice, but each one was equally enticing.

Anything I may have forgotten about this dish can be blamed completely on the setting sun – the largest glowing molten sphere I have ever seen. It slipped below the mountains and sent brilliant hues of red and pink ricocheting off the prism of clouds (this picture does not even come close to doing it justice). I wish I could have taken my shiny Laguiole spoon and scooped off a mouthful – I bet it would have tasted like sorbet from heaven.

St. Pierre fish (aka John Dory), crunchy piece of skin, purple garlic flowers, sorrel, peas and partly salted butter. The skin piece was like a salty sweet graham cracker that melted in my mouth. The peas were fresh and the garlic flowers were a double bonus of garlic flavor and pretty purple flowers. The fish itself was very smooth but I think the crunchy skin was the highlight of the dish. At this point we made the amateur mistake of setting our knives on the plate to be cleared with the rest of the silverware. Our server kindly informed us that custom in Laguoile is to keep the same knife for the whole meal but they would change the other utensils. From then on we dutifully returned the knife to its nook on the holder before the plates were cleared.

Foie gras, preserves, star anise, roasted onion bulb. This generous foie portion was possibly the most simple preparation I had on the whole trip. It was not complicated with brulées or brioche (or even barbeque) it was just its pure silky smooth self with the option of some sweet preserves or anise. Although I ate the onion piece and it was very sweet, it seemed a little bit unnecessary on the plate. I was surprised how much I liked the star anise, in small quantities sprinkled over each bite.

“Galette” Zucchini, sweet onion, red pepper, black truffle sauce. Matt accurately labeled the top piece a “vegetable churro” which was good, but not quite as refined as some of the other flavors they had presented so far. What completely saved the dish was the incredible black truffle sauce, which I wanted a much greater quantity of. Also surprisingly, when combining all the ingredients into one bite, the addition of some of the green leaf made a huge difference and pulled all the flavors together into a cohesive dish.

Allaiton lamb roasted on the bone, artichokes & bulgar with coriander, flowers and garlic. The lamb was supremely tender and the sauce was wonderful. The artichokes were a little bit bland, but the bulgar was surprisingly delicious. Bulgar screams healthy and not very tasty whole wheat, but it was not the same dense texture that I have previously known it to have. Once again I love the use of the ornamental flowers (yellow) and the garlic flowers (purple) for a splash of color on the plate.

To accompany this came a gloriously whipped potato mixture that makes my dog-eared recipe page in the Dean & Deluca cookbook look like a meager survivor of the potato famine, barely scraping together enough garlic to get by.
Called aligot, this local specialty is potatoes whipped with Laguoile cheese and then hand-churned table side. Our server gracefully stretched and winded the potatoes around two spoons and made the starchy substance look like gooey taffy. Then, when ready she slipped the blob off onto a plate and she had barely moved to Matt’s side of the table when I dove into the doughy goo. It was fantastic.

Just as I thought my senses were about to hit overload, a cheese cart the size of our Smart Car appeared next to me. I can hands down say this was the best cheese course I have ever had. Our server was kind enough to write down the names of my cheeses (which helped save me from looking totally ignorant and asking to have the name repeated 5 times)
Ecir en Aubrac, Bleu de St. Fleur, Pave de L’Aveyron, Laguiole Jeune. I can almost still feel the sting of the blue on the roof of my mouth and the full creamy taste of the Rocamadour. The cheeses were accompanied by a chutney that I am sure was quite good, but I was in a state of total dairy bliss.

The first dessert was invented by Bras in 1981 – A warm chocolate biscuit “coulant” (aka molten chocolate cake) with rum, sorbet of bananas caramelized in semi-salted butter. The Epcot center of sorbet balanced expertly on top of a moist, oozing chocolate cake. The inside still had the slight tang of the rum and once the ice cream melted all over (which it took a while to do even though the cake was quite warm) it became a succession of delicious spoonfuls that I raised to my mouth in praise of the chocolate gods.

Candied cherries with Aveyron thyme, mix of dry fruits, cinnamon, anise, semolina and honey – a deconstructed cherry pie of sorts, the semolina/honey crust provided a nice coating for the concentrated sweet & tart cherries. In the background of the photo – a crystallized Balsam herb leaf with yogurt ice cream and tastes of strong cacao. The balsam leaf had a pleasant balsamic (hence the name) aroma and the ice cream was light with all the tang of a good fresh yogurt.

sorbet dessert 3

Looking back over my pictures I noticed that the color profile of the dishes is very similar – fresh greens, neutral browns/beiges, and a few splashes of yellow or red. And then, when I look at scenic pictures of Laguoile I notice the same thing – clean beige buildings, lush green fields, a few dabs of yellow. Whether or not this was intentional, I think this shows how connected Michel Bras is to his surroundings. As the most revered chef in France, he has made a deliberate choice to stay in Laguoile and not pack up his enterprise to the culinary madhouse of Paris. These flavor and color combinations may seem second nature to Chef, but they were very aesthetically pleasing; the meal had the same calm aura as the surrounding town. His simple ingredients do not mean they are unsophisticated, in fact it seems a much more difficult venture to capture the essence of an indescribable beauty than it is to throw esoteric flavor combinations into the latest culinary gadget.

In a Food and Wine article about Bras’s appearance as guest chef at a dinner in New York, Tom Cholicchio asked him, “How do you have the guts to do something so simple?”

“I owe it to my region,” Bras replied. “The day I can’t work with vegetables anymore,” he added, “is the day I no longer step into the kitchen.”

Krause Dining

The proposal for this meal came to Matt from some regulars at our restaurant. They wanted to rent a limo and drink some champagne on the way to Lawrence, Kans. (about a 45 minute drive). However one of them is a neurosurgeon and a few days before the dinner his coworker had to leave town and he was not able to find someone to cover his shift – I imagine getting a neurosurgery shift covered is a bit more difficult than getting my Monday lunch serving shift covered. So, Matt, his older brother Charles, Charles’ girlfriend Silver and I drove in a  boring ol’ trailblazer, no bubbles, and made a much more modest arrival in the residential Lawrence neighborhood. We met Willie there, one of Matt’s dance professors from KU and we were lead into the living room where pictures of the Krause daughters were framed on the walls, and a few magazine subscriptions were stacked on the coffee table. We sipped on the house cocktail – a cucumber infused gin gimlet and imaged the daughters being annoyed with their new rowdy house guests from their bedrooms above. We were then served a spoonful of mission fig, Turkish fig, Berkshire farms bacon and goat cheese. Then, Chef came out and casually said dinner was ready (I almost expected to hear my mom yell for someone to come set the table). And then, like a gaggle of well dressed foster children, we went into the dining room and our Krause “parents” served up an incredible dinner.

The cast for the evening:

Willie: a 62-year-old dance professor at KU, recently had two hip replacements. Refuses to eat organ meats, rodents (rabbit) or squab because he ate too much of that growing up poor 50 years ago. Makes most of his own clothes (except for his red shirt this evening) and is dressed to the nines in a vest, cuff links and a paisley print tie. Loves making puns and has a wonderfully distinctive raspy voice. Tonight he will eat an innocent little veal and even admit that he liked it.

Charles: (Chuck) Matt’s older brother, just graduated from dental school and is one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met. He spends a ridiculous amount of time studying and working and I think he enjoyed this night of relaxation. He got really into telling jokes with Willie (especially after a few glasses of wine) – example: Q: “what is green and has wheels?” “I don’t know, what?” A: “grass, I was just messing with you about the wheels.” Or – “Ask me if I’m a truck.” “Are you a truck?” “No.”

Silver: Chuck’s girlfriend, also works in the dental field. She is involved in an intense game of Mafia Wars on her iPhone and despite her petite stature and good manners, her favorite move is to rob the other mobsters and steal all their money. This was her debut foie gras eating experience and although she approached the plate a little timidly I think she enjoyed it.

Matt and myself, who are very used to  each others company at the dining table and I had not really noticed how our stomachs are conditioned to eat 9 courses with no trouble at all. Looking back, this is definitely an acquired skill,  because I once was the one defeated by the final bite of a chocolate soufflé. Having just come off a gastro-intense week in New York, I as interested to see what Krause had to contribute. The food was superb – great ingredients, combinations and presentation. They offer wine pairings with each course for $55 a head, however they have no printed wine list (our server told us he was “the embodiment of this list” so if we wanted anything just ask) But this did not leave many options other than to do the pairing. The pairings were fair, all good wines, but I wouldn’t say anything particularly set the food off in a magical way. My only hope for the restaurant is they improve their wine program because the food was far far beyond what I was expecting.

1. Tomato and Tomatillo Soup, Sweet Corn Sorbet, Dried Chili – the sorbet had a wonderfully authentic sweet corn flavor and the hot soup was a great contrast, with a tiny bit of well rounded heat.

2. Homemade Dungeness Crab Ravioli, Lobster Carrot Broth, Flash Fried Basil and Fennel Tip, Basil Oil – the sauce was the highlight of the dish (and it was incredible) the ravioli was not particularly crabby but the pasta was very delicate.

Paired with: 2006 Shinas Estate Viognier “The Innocent”

3. Brandade (Puree of salt cod and potato) Wrapped in Iberian Ham, Soft Poached Farm Egg, Dried Tomato, Piquillo Pepper Sauce, Pea Tendrils, Baby Arugula – Possibly my favorite dish of the meal, the Brandade was good whipped texture, nice and salty. The dried tomato had concentrated all of its flavor power down into the one slice and was all the goodness of a tomato without the oozy seeds or watery juices to get in the way. I always am happy to eat a poached egg.

Paired with: a decent Albarino that I forgot the name of

4. Hudson Valley Foie Gras, Mango and Pineapple Sticky Rice, Candied Yuzu, Macadamia Nut, Mango Mint Coulis – The foie was great with a nice amount of salt on the outside however Matt and I both agreed that the accompaniments were a little bit too sweet/ didn’t do much for the foie. I normally love all things mango, and I think the couli and the rice would have been good on their own which I did by eating the elements seperately. From our first time foie eaters in the group there were mixed reviews, Silver had liver growing up and was expecting that tough chewy texture, Chuck was not quite sure weather to chew or let it dissolve but once he figured it out, I think he enjoyed.

Paired with: Dönnhhoff Riesling Spätlese

5. Seared Albacore Tuna, Tomato and Caper Vinagrette. Sea Beans, Beets, Cabbage – The sea beans were a new ingredient for me, they looked like seaweed but had the crunch and skin texture of a bean. Willie was not convinced they were beans, and Matt offered to float it around in his water glass so we could get the full effect of the sea bean swaying in its natural habitat. The rest of the salad portion was very nice especially the bite that had half of a tiny delicious heirloom tomato in it. The tuna was good, still nice and raw inside, and the capers added a good briny tang.

Paired with: 2004 Chehalem Pinot Noir

(this is when the natural light went away and the pictures turn red)

6. Canadian Veal Strip Loin, Baby Broccoli Raab, Lobster Mushroom, Baby Shiitake, Huckleberry Dots, Demi Glas Huckleberry Jus, Carmelized Fennel – tremendously tender meat, the lobster mushroom was earthier tasting than I expected (not like an Oyster Mushroom at all). I had never had a whole huckleberry before and they were great – sweet and sour at the same time, Chuck called them “blueberries on steroids.” The fennel was also delicious, whatever they did to carmelize it gave it a wonderful flavor, almost like there was some sort of vinegar there too.

Paired with: 2003 Andrew Will Klipsun Vineyard Cab Merlot blend

7. Coconut Panna Cotta, Pineapple Chili Syrup, Pineapple Granite, Cardamom Cookie – We had told them ahead of time that Willie is lactose intolerant, and we thought we had caught them here serving the panna cotta, but our server assured us it was coconut milk based, so Willie was in the clear. It was very tasty and I was so eager to eat it I did not take a photograph. Sorry!

Paired with: 2006 Leitz Riesling

8. Chocolate Soufflé, Chantilly Cream, Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce – Chef came out to pour the bittersweet chocolate table side, making a few precise stabs into the soufflé and then pouring the sauce over the top. We had not been paying attention to all the ingredients, so when we asked Chef what we were about to eat he jokingly shrugged and said “Beats me!”. It was decadent and delicious and perfectly warm inside (I have encountered some third-degree-burn-on-your-tongue hot soufflés)

Paired with: 2007 Dashe Late Harvest Zin

Honeydew Mint Sorbet with Lemonade – a refreshing shot to clean off the palate and leave a fresh taste for the drive home

I liked the Krause concept quite a bit. It was wonderful food in an amazingly unpretentious setting. Krause was shut down in the beginning for illegaly running a restaurant out of his house – Which I’m sure is much MORE legal than what happens in the homes of many of the college student homes nearby. But, he has since obtained all legal licenses and has a wonderfully rennovated space to serve dinner. The family still lives upstairs, and there is a modern metal and glass wing attached for the dining room. There were four tables in that room and we were told there is another dining room they serve out of sometimes as well. The ceiling had a metal screen that looked like chain mail draped over the lights, and I overheard the adjacent table saying it was the conveyer belt from an old bakery in Topeka. The overall mood in the dining room was very light, our table erupted in fits of laughter quite often over Willie’s clever puns. But we were not the only roudy table, next to us were some almost defeaning screams of laughter as well – I think a good sign that people are truly enjoying themselves. While the menu might be expensive for Lawrence standards, it is quite a bargain given the level of food – I reccommend that everyone go check this out!